The interviews were conducted in June and July of 1985 with 12 British prisoner and 1 Irish prisoner in 5 Dutch Jails and 14 Dutch prisoners in 4 English jails. Some prisoners had had experience in both prison systems. Although the much shorter sentence lengths in The Netherlands than in England are usually noted as the main difference in the two penal systems, the prisoners emphasized the depth rather than the length of imprisonment. In a variety of ways, they experienced imprisonment in The Netherlands as a far less damaging and repressive phenomenon than in Britain. The sense of contrast in terms of psychological invasion was expressed with respect to relations with staff, relations with other prisoners, rights and privileges, material standards and conditions, and a sense of the overall quality of life that the prison regime made possible or withheld. However, the Dutch reconviction rates are no higher, and may be lower, than those for England. All the prisoners expressed a clear and strong preference for the Dutch system over that of England, except at the pre-charge stage of remand in custody.